Fifth Avenue Rents at Record High

Crain’s New York has reported that rents on New York’s Fifth Avenue, between 49th and 59th streets, have topped $3000-per-square-foot for the first time.

According to a second quarter report released by commercial real estate services firm CBRE Group (Los Angeles), the average asking rent is 22 percent higher than a year ago.

Nonetheless, Crain’s reports, activity on the street is still brisk. Ralph Lauren has taken 38,000 square feet at 711 Fifth Ave., on West 55th Street, and Valentino leased 20,000 square feet at Fifth and 54th.

Also, says Crain’s, Topshop has been looking at Fifth Avenue for its second New York location so as to be near competitors such as Uniqlo and H&M.

Elsewhere in Manhattan, average asking rents jumped 42 percent in SoHo to $794 a square foot and even in less-fashionable Times Square and Herald Square, rents increased 34 percent to $2413 a square foot and 37 percent to $690 a square foot, respectively.

Urban Outfitters recently took 56,700 square feet in Herald Square.

However, rents dropped by 4 percent in the Meatpacking District, to an average of $366 a square foot during the second quarter. Many of that neighborhood’s trendy pioneers, like Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen, have moved elsewhere in the city.